BIHOGO, 1 October 2010 (IRIN) – Smartphones are being introduced to help assess food needs in Burundi and other African states, speeding up data-collection and improving accuracy. Whereas World Food Programme monitors used to conduct surveys with paper forms, answers to key questions such as ?How many meals a day are you eating?? ?What do you use to cook?? and ?How many people live in your household?? are now entered into Hewlett Packard iPAQ smartphones loaded with a specially developed application. Each phone costs about US$200. With two devices in each of the 15 provinces, the cost of the initiative... Continue Reading
KADOMA, 1 October 2010 (IRIN) – A new wave of farm invasions in Zimbabwe has been dubbed the Fourth Chimurenga (liberation struggle) – the fast track-land reform programme launched by President Robert Mugabe in 2000 was the third – but this time they are not looking to redistribute land, they are looking for gold. Thousands of unemployed Zimbabweans trying to survive in an economic meltdown that has lasted almost a decade have taken to unlicensed prospecting for gold and other minerals along the country’s rivers. As more and more illegal miners crowd the river banks, people have begun spreading onto... Continue Reading
By Guyson Nanagayi – ABUJA- (Reuters) – At least eight people have been killed and three others injured in car bomb explosions near a parade in Nigeria’s capital on Friday during the marking of 50th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain , police said. Two blasts, which also destroyed three cars, came an hour after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Nigeria’s biggest rebel militia, warned it had planted several bombs and told people to evacuate the area. “Two car bombs exploded and eight people are confirmed dead,” Abuja police spokesman Jimoh Moshood told Reuters. “Several... Continue Reading
By Guyson Nanagayi – Geneva – AFP- The UN on Friday published a hotly-contested report detailing massacres by foreign armies and rebels saying acts of genocide may have been committed in the DR Congo. Although the report was published, Rwanda, whose troops are at the center of the most serious accusations, said it categorically rejected the report after it failed to have it suppressed.”The government of Rwanda categorically rejects this report,” said a statement. “The desire to validate the double genocide theory is consistently present throughout The Draft Mapping Report by mirror imaging’ the actors, ideology, and methods employed during... Continue Reading
By Mohamed Nuxurkey – As violence increasingly became more precarious in the Somali capital of Mogadishu thousands of students put themselves at risk every day during their daily lessons along with growing threats of about being questioned any time that they are or they may be part of conflicting sides in the Somali’s political havoc. According to the students themselves many of them lost their lives in this ongoing bloodshed some of them were forced to join the war while others were sent to outside of the country for better education by the parents. “My name is Omar Habiib one... Continue Reading
